08032019-TTC-01.qxd 3/8/2019 1:28 AM Page 1 13 chandigarh | gurugram | jalandhar | bathinda | jammu | srinagar | vol.3 no.66 | 28 pages | ~5.00 | regd.no.chd/0006/2018-2020 established in 1881 | friday,march 8,2019 SEARCH PANEL RECOMMENDS NAMES FOR LOKPAL, MEMBERS NATION US WON’T REPORT CIVILIAN DEATHS IN AIRSTRIKES NOW WORLD /thetribunechd /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com 1dies, 31 hurt in Jammu blast UN no to Saeed appeal to be off ban Grenade attack at bus stand I Suspect with Hizb links arrested terror March 7list New Delhi, Amir Karim Tantray Tribune News Service Jammu, March 7 A teenager was killed and 31 others were injured, two of them critically, in a grenade attack at the crowded bus stand in the heart of the city at 11.50 am today. Within hours, the police claimed to have nabbed the suspect, Yasir Javed Butt of Khanpura Dosan in Kulgam, from Ban toll plaza in Nagrota. Yasir allegedly hurled the grenade on the directions of Hizbul Mujahideen’s Kulgam district commander Farooq Ahmad Butt alias Umar, the police said. Jammu zone Inspector General of Police MK Sinha said the suspect was identified from CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts. “He was wearing jeans and a red shirt. He had arrived in Jammu from Kulgam yesterday and was returning home when arrested,” the IGP said. This is the third grenade attack by terrorists at the bus Accused Yasir Javed Butt in police custody. INDERJEET SINGH 3RD ATTACK IN 10 MONTHS MAY 24, 2018: Grenade attack along BC Road in Jammu leaves two policemen and a civilian injured DEC 28-29, 2018: A grenade attack Mother and other relatives of Mohd Shariq (inset), is carried out at Jammu bus who died in the grenade attack, mourn at his village stand with the intention to target Toda Kalyanpur in Haridwar. PTI local police station stand since May last year, viewed by security agencies as an attempt to disturb communal harmony and peace. Muhammad Shariq (17), a resident of Toda Kalyanpur in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, succumbed to splinter injuries in the chest. The injured included 11 residents of Kashmir, two from Bihar and one each from Chhattisgarh and Haryana. The IGP said there was no ANOTHER NUCLEAR SUBMARINE FOR INDIA FROM RUSSIA BACK PAGE specific input about such an attack. Immediately after the explosion, people ran to safety and later as the situation returned to normal, the injured were evacuated to the hospital. The United Nations has rejected an appeal of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, to remove his name from its list of banned terrorists, sources said. The decision comes at a time when UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee has received a new request to ban Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar after the Pulwama terror attack. The UN decision to reject the appeal of Saeed, also a cofounder of terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), came after India provided detailed evidence about his activities. Saeed, chief of UN-designated terrorist organisation Jammat--ud-Dawa (JuD), was banned on December 10, 2008 by the UN Security Council after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Saeed had filed an appeal through Lahore-based law firm Mirza and Mirza in 2017, while he was still under house arrest in Pakistan. — PTI Cong first list of 15:Gandhis stick to Rae Bareli, Amethi 11 from UP, 4 Gujarat I Khurshid, RPN also fielded Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 7 UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, 72, will contest the Lok Sabha elections from her Rae Bareli seat while Congress president Rahul Gandhi will defend his parliamentary constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. Their names were part of the first list of candidates the Congress released after the maiden meeting of the central election committee chaired by Rahul Gandhi. The meeting concluded with the list of 15 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls — 11 in UP and four in Gujarat. The Congress declared its UP candidates at a time when other Opposition parties are urging it to go with the SP and BSP who have struck an , alliance. The BSP and SP had left only Rae Bareli and Amethi for the Congress. The release of the first list of candidates is being seen as Congress’ attempt to pressure the BSP and SP to cede more space to the party. The developments so far mean no seat is readily available for AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra after Sonia and Rahul have been fielded from the family bastions. This will be Sonia Gandhi’s sixth Lok Sabha election starting 1999 when she entered the Lower House from Amethi. In 2004, she vacated the seat for her son Rahul and shifted to Rae Bareli, which she won in 2004, 2009 and 2014. In 2006, she resigned over the office-of-profit controversy and was re-elected. Also on the first list are former ministers Salman Khurshid, RPN Singh and Jitin Prasad from Farukhabad, Kushinagar and Dhaurahara, respectively. Congress’ west UP leader Imran Masood has been fielded from Saharanpur. He had threatened PM Modi with violence after the Muzaffarpur riots in 2013. Former Unnao MP Annu Tandon will contest from Unnao again. The party candidate from Faizabad will be former UP Congress chief Nirmal Khatri. Rajarampal will fight from Akbarpur and Brij Lal Khabri from Jalaun (SC). Saleem Iqbal Shervani will fight from Badaun. It is learnt the Congress is negotiating with the BSP-SP on at least 22 seats its leaders won in 2009. Opposition parties are urging the trio to agree to give and take. ECHS now for short Will waive food legacy debt:Rahul Four held for assault service officers too MOGA RALLY Says BJP sowing hate, Guru Nanak’s philosophy will triumph on Kashmiris in UP Kulwinder Sandhu Move to immediately benefit 43,000 Vijay Mohan Tribune News Service Chandigarh, March 7 The Cabinet has extended the benefit of Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) to short service commissioned officers and emergency commissioned officers (SSCOs and ECOs), as well as some other categories of exmilitary personnel. It will immediately benefit over 43,000 individuals, who can now avail free medicare at ECHS polyclinics and private empanelled hospitals after paying a one-time subscription. Under regulations in vogue, only those defence personnel drawing a pension from the defence estimates are considered “ex-servicemen” and those who do not fall under this category were not being granted certain benefits like the ECHS. The decision comes in the wake of directions issued by the Supreme Court in Janu- ary that granted time to the government till April to act upon the issue while hearing an appeal filed by Ministry of Defence against a judgment of the Chandigarh Bench of Armed Forces Tribunal. In 2011, the AFT had ordered restoration of medical facilities to non-pensioner military veterans that had been abruptly withdrawn by the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) in late 2000s. Medical facilities in military hospitals were being provided to non-pensioner exdefence personnel since 1970. Later, pension was made compulsory for availing facilities. In 1997, the term “exservice pensioners” was again replaced by “ex-servicemen” by the MoD, thereby restoring facilities to veterans who were released with the status of “ex-servicemen” but without getting any pension. continued on page 7 Were selling dry fruits in Lucknow Tribune News Service Killi Chahal (Moga), March 7 Congress president Rahul Gandhi today challenged PM Narendra Modi to a debate on the Rafale issue, alleging that public money was being given to “certain industrialists” for vested interests. Addressing a rally at Killi Chahal village in Moga, he said: “Industrialist Anil Ambani opened a company only 10 days before the award of the Rafale contract. It was awarded to him in minutes by cancelling the earlier deal. But the Rs 31,000 crore food legacy debt incurred by Punjab, which fought a battle against terrorism for 20 years, has not been waived by the Centre”. Rahul Gandhi promised that should the Congress come to power at the Centre, not only this debt of Rs 31,000 crore, but also loans of farmers and farmhand would be waived. Accusing the BJP of spreading hatred, he said theelections would be an ideological fight and Guru Tribune News Service AICC president Rahul Gandhi, Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh, PPCC president Sunil Jakhar and state incharge Asha Kumari during a public rally at Killi Chahal in Moga on Thursday. PAWAN SHARMA CAPT TO SAD: YOUR MINISTER IN CABINET, DID NOTHING ON DEBT WAIVER What did you (SAD) do when the amount reached ~31,000 crore? Your minister (Harsimrat Kaur Badal) is in Union Cabinet, yet you failed to resolve the issue. Capt Amarinder Singh, PUNJAB CM Nanak's philosophy of love and respect would triumph. “The BJP and PM are spreading hatred in the country against which Guru Nanak spent his entire life... In a way Guru Nanak's thoughts are being attacked.” Without naming the PM, he reiterated the “chowkidar chor hai” charge. “The missing Rafale files would have shown that the arrival of jets was delayed because of parallel negotiations by the Union Government, endangering the lives of IAF pilots.” continued on page 7 Lucknow, March 7 Lathi-wielding youths in saffron shirts beat up three Kashmiri men selling dry fruits at Daliganj Bridge here yesterday, accusing them of pelting stones in Kashmir. The police have arrested four persons. While Bajrang Sonkar, facing trial in a murder case, was arrested last night, Himanshu Garg, Anirudh Kumar and Amar Mishra were nabbed today. Kalanidhi Naithani, SSP , said the accused were members of Vishwa Hindu Dal Trust, run by one Ambuj Nigam. The victims belonged to Kulgam. A video clip of the beating has gone viral. It purportedly shows a few men alighting from their car and confronting the Kashmiris, who used to sell dry fruits at the spot every year. The accused allegedly beat up the victims A Kashmiri vendor being attacked in Lucknow. with sticks, asking them to show their Aadhaar cards. While two of them manage to escape, the third Kashmiri is brutally assaulted till a passerby comes to his rescue, asking the attackers why they were beating him up. Sonkar has around a dozen criminal cases, including of continued on page 7 Ludhiana village’s knockout Out of purdah, success spurs girls to boxing slowly but surely Ferozepur woman, ‘118 yrs old’ , world’s oldest to get pacemaker Minna Zutshi Raj Sadosh Manav Mander Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Tribune News Service Chakar (Ludhiana), March 7 With every knockout blow in the boxing ring, the young pugilist women from Chakar village are knocking out the gender stereotypes and prejudices. Though the patriarchal culture enjoins women to be submissive, yielding and graceful, these young boxers are busy cultivating the qualities of toughness, courage, endurance and steely resolve. Following a rigorous routine, Boxers practise at Sher-e-Punjab Sports Academy. HIMANSHU MAHAJAN these women train regularly at the Sher-e-Punjab Kaur, who started train- Chakar. From a village known Sports Academy at ing for boxing six years for all the wrong reasons, Chakar village. Their day ago. Arshpreet, who is a including land-related fights starts at 6.30 am, with two Class VII student, start- and petty squabbles, Chakar hours of intensive practice ed her training when has transformed itself into a in the morning and in she was in Class IV . village that finds a pride of the evening. WOMEN’S DAY The journey of the place on the national and even “Workouts, gym trainyoung boxers from shy, international map, thanks to ing, circuit training, sparring unsure girls to focused play- the achievements of the play— all are part of our training ers and confident women is ers from the village. continued on page 7 sessions,” says Kirandeep almost parallel to that of Abohar, March 7 International Women’s Day may be celebrated on March 8 each year, but for Panjkosi village on the PunjabRajasthan border here, it fell on May 15 last year. That was the first time that the women residents came out of the purdah on the insistence of Sub-Divisional Magistrate Poonam Singh, who was there to create awareness against drug abuse. The second time they had lifted veils in public was on December 30 last year, while voting in panchayat polls. Just as development has eluded these 20-odd villages, so has uplift of women. Though almost 10 villages have women sarpanches, they hold the posts only in name. Power rests with men. These villages are inhabited by Bagris, Jats and Bish- Ludhiana, March 7 Said to be 118 years old, a woman from Ferozepur has become one of the oldest persons in the world to have a pacemaker fitted. Kartar Kaur, who had never been to a doctor all her life, underwent surgery to implant the device at SPS Hospital here after being found to have a weak heartbeat. Doctors claimed she had become the oldest person to undergo the procedure, the last record being of a 107-year-old. “We used to have a diet full of desi ghee and butter and would work strenuously to digest the fats. As such, we never landed in a doctor’s clinic. It’s at this age that I had to go under the knife and all went well as I had taken good care of myself when I was young,” the centenarian SDM Poonam Singh with villagers. nois. Even Dalit families follow the same social norms. Such deep-rooted is the system that women have to keep the veil even in their homes. At social functions, including marriages, they sit separately. Even in a prominent political family from here, women members do not come out for campaigning or meetings. Winds of change, though, seem to be blowing. Thanks to a targeted approach, girls are being sent to schools and even colleges. A miniscule number has even got teaching jobs. Today’s issue is of 28 pages, including four-page Jalandhar Tribune. Kartar Kaur with her family members at the hospital. TRIBUNE PHOTO was quoted as saying. Dr Ravninder Singh Kuka, interventional cardiologist, said Kartar Kaur’s was a unique case, but they took it as a challenge. “When she was admitted, she was unconscious and her blood pressure was low too. We used a temporary pacemaker to tide over the immediate threat and started preparing for the bigger challenge (of a permanent implant),” said Dr Kuka. “But a coordinated effort and her strong will helped us pull it off.” Kartar Kaur has two children: her daughter, 88, retired from government service and her son from the British Army.

The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising four eminent persons as trustees.
The Tribune, the largest selling daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the paper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.
The English edition apart, the 133-year-old Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).